Friday, May 11, 2007

Houston Chronicle reported He railed against the United States, helped scout out military installations for attack, offered to introduce his comrades to an arms dealer, and gave them a list of weapons he could procure, including machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. These were not the actions of a terrorist, but of a paid FBI informant who helped bring down an alleged plot by six Muslim men to massacre U.S. soldiers at New Jersey's Fort Dix.

If someone came up to me and railed against the US, and gave me a list of weapons he could procure, I would call the police and turn him in. Did they do that?

Those actions have raised questions of whether the government crossed the line and pushed the six men down a path they would not have otherwise followed. It is an argument — entrapment — that has been made in other terrorism cases, and one that has failed miserably in this post-Sept. 11 era.